FAITH, S.D. (AP) — A few months ago, the city council in this ranching town in remote northwestern South Dakota decided to join dozens of other communities across the state and hire an outside contractor to enforce property codes.
But in a pioneer town built on a rugged history of cattle ranching and as a stop on the state’s early railroad, the code enforcement crackdown has led to a (so far) peaceful revolt.
After years without any property inspections or code enforcement, residents here are hinting at taking up arms to force their elected leaders to rescind the code enforcement contract and undo an ordinance that put in place a strict new set of codes that could allow an inspector to enter someone’s property without permission.
About 50 residents – roughly a quarter of the city’s adult population – attended a city council meeting on July 2 to air their grievances before the council. The only other pressing decision of the night was rubber-stamping a liquor license request for the annual stock show.
As the crowd filed in, one man asked another, “Did you bring your pistol?” The guy said he had not.
A while later, former city council member Rae Shalla warned the council that, “I promise you that if you start violating peoples’ Fourth Amendment rights (against unlawful searches and seizures), you’re going to have citizens exercising their Second Amendment rights (to bear arms).”
1 in 4 properties in Faith warned over violations
Per his contract with the city, contracted inspector Joel Johnson of Code Enforcement Specialists (CES), sent out 53 warning letters to Faith residents after visiting this spring.
The town’s population of 300 lives in roughly 200 housing units, according to the U.S. Census. Johnson owns the company, based in Burke, another West River community, and said he has more than 80 cities under contract and a waiting list of a dozen more municipalities.
Johnson, a former fire chief and city council member in Burk